American Le Mans Series Preview
Lime Rock & Mid-Ohio

And we’re back.
 
Miller Motorsports Park seems like a long time ago, but American Le Mans Series action returns with back to back weekends, first at the up-graded Lime Rock Park, then off to Mid Ohio.

A schedule change, away from the traditional Lime Rock 4th of July weekend, has allowed these two races to be back to back.  Whether that is a good thing remains to be seen, as it gives the teams less time to sort out the damage from a race, especially at a track that can be as tough on equipment as it is at Lime Rock.
 
As far as tracks go, these have similarities, but produce different types of racing.  Both are park-like settings that draw large fan turn outs, but Lime Rock is much like a good old boys short track, where the action is quite often intense and even beyond.  That’s not to say that Mid Ohio can’t and won’t be that way, but it is much more of a normal North American road course.

Lime Rock has been going through a massive 5 million dollar up grade, and most of the attention has been turned towards the paving of the track.  The intention has been to retain the character of the track, keeping all of the twists, banking and character of the track intact, but just making it now a constant black top surface, instead of the patch work that it was.

For this event, the series will be running on a slightly modified circuit.  Still 1.51 miles in length, the optional West Bend and optional Up Hill sections will be in use, technically making it a 10 turn circuit, rather that the previous 8.  These changes take away some of the sweeping nature of the track, but in the eyes of track management allow for more opportunities to pass for the competitors.  Hopefully it doesn’t allow for more opportunities for carnage.

The construction has been condensed into a dramatically shortened time frame, and as such, not everything has been or will be completed on time.  Recent photos show lots of areas with bare dirt around the circuit.  With the forecast calling for showers and thunder storms off and on through the week, heading into the event, let’s hope we don’t have a reincarnation of the infamous mud that we saw at Sears Point in 2002 when that track was under similar construction.

The track resurfacing itself could/should create grip levels that will lead to record shattering lap times, but the modified sections of the track may prevent that from happening.

Mid Ohio sees the resumption of shared weekends with the IRL.  Last year was quite successful, with the Saturday race day crowd turnout quite strong.  Let’s hope that tradition continues this year.
 
The biggest news during the break in the schedule has simply been changes; additions and subtractions.  The biggest of the changes was the driver line up for Andretti Green Racing.  Out are Bryan Herta and Christian Fittipaldi – in are Franck Montagny (full time) and Marco Andretti.  In many sports, when a team fails, it is the coach that is out.  In racing, it’s the drivers.  Were the drivers the fault?  That remains to be seen, but Herta being let go may have been uncalled for, at least from this perspective. 

When this team was announced as one of the chosen by Acura, many thought this would be the team that would lead the Acura charge.  Other than the class win at Sebring last season, the team has disappointed and has likely fallen to be the least of the four Acura teams.  Will this change help?  We’ll see.  Was it their doing or was it something suggested from above?  This we may not truly know for awhile, but how the team dealt with the Franchitti situation last year may give us a hint.

From the results at Miller, it was evident that the appearance of de Ferran Motorsports has shaken up the order, not just in Acura, but in the class and possibly the overall race.  Lime Rock should very likely be a P2 race overall up front, and de Ferran would have to be considered as one of the favorites heading in.  But any of the Acura teams could be there.  Luis Diaz has upped his game tremendously for Fernandez and David Brabham with Highcroft is always strong and has a tremendous amount of experience at both of the tracks.  So far, he has carried the team, as it appears that Scott Sharp is still finding his way in the prototype ranks.  Mid Ohio is especially important for Acura, with the race being sponsored by Acura and with Honda being such a large employer in the region.

Audi sees some change, as it was confirmed that Dindo (Dingo) Capello will be partnering Emanuele Pirro in both races.  Audi was competitive at Mid Ohio, and if they were not beat in the pits on a late refueling only stop, they might have won the race.  Later rule changes addressed the in-equality in refueling time, but for Mid Ohio, it was Audi that got the short end of the deal.

The favorites for both races still have to be the Penske Porsche entries.  1-2 overall in both races last season (as well as Mid Ohio in 2006), it very well could happen again this year.  But could this be the last time for them at these tracks?  Rumors are flying that this could be their last year in ALMS competition if their current situations remain the same.  We’ll see how this plays out.

If Hollywood wrote the script, the winners at Lime Rock would be Dyson Racing with their Porsche Spyders.  The race this year marks the 25th anniversary of the team in competition.  From a Pontiac Firebird, to Porsche 962, Spice Ferrari (a dust bin special according to Rob Dyson), Riley Ford, Lolas of various configuration and then back to Porsche, this team has consistently been one of the strongest of teams in sportscar racing.  A win at Lime Rock would be especially meaningful for the team from up-state New York.  The celebration for the team will include retro paint on the #16 RS Spyder, as well as a parade lap including the original team 962.

Intersport will be expanding after Lime Rock, with the addition of Ryan Lewis and John Faulkner into a second (ex-Dyson, ex-Cytosport) AER Lola.  Will Jon be able to lead again, as he did at Miller?  Mid Ohio is their home track…

The Lola Mazda of B-K Motorsport returns with the same line up as before, featuring an excited Ben Devlin, who was able to spend part of the break in the schedule racing at Le Mans.  The little team amongst giants continues to plug away at the gap in the incredibly tough LMP2 class.

The rough and tumble, bullring like nature of Lime Rock is keeping Autocon and their de-evolutionized (taking a page out of the Devo songbook) Creation CA06 out of action until Mid Ohio.  The CA07 that they ran at Le Mans is staying in Europe for now, according to Bryan Willman.

In GT1, the Corvettes will have someone to play with.  Making a welcome return to the series is the GT1 Aston Martin effort of Bell Motorsports.  According to Terry Borcheller’s website, “we will be sporting a brand new paint job, the signature blue and silver w/ a few bonus features. Jim is very proud of the repair that was done, and the new look. Also, we have a bigger restrictor and a little less weight, thanks to a rule adjustment from IMSA. Dunlop has also been working hard to get us a new tire which we should have access to as well. Hopefully, we will be able to get a little closer to the yellow cars!”

The regs change referenced above is the one IMSA announced before Miller and will allow the Aston Martin DBR9 to compete at 1125 kg minimum weight with two (2) 31.2 mm minimum diameter air restrictors and a maximum on-board fuel capacity of 85 liters.

Terry also had the news on his website that he will driving for Autohaus in their GT class Pontiac for the remainder of the season in the Grand Am.  The Mid Ohio weekend will see him doing double duty, as the Grand Am is at Birmingham the same weekend.

GT2 will be a shootout at both races, but hopefully not with the fireworks that we saw last year.  Again, it boils down to the Ferrari vs. Porsche battle.  Is one particular car favored at either circuit?  Depends on who you talk to.

Risi has had a very rough go of it here in North America so far in 2008, but they won Le Mans.  Fair trade?  Momentum turner?  Their fight to repeat as a champion is over, but they can they help keep Ferrari in the manufacturers championship?

Tafel stayed home from Le Mans, according to the team, to concentrate on the championship, while The Flying Lizards sent one car to France.  Currently Jörg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler and the Lizards hold a one point advantage over the Tafel pair of Dominick Farnbacher and Dirk Müller heading into Lime Rock.  Teams, drivers and manufacturers championships and bragging rights are at stake.

Farnbacher-Loles returns to action with some momentum, courtesy of their Grand Am program, where they have had a first and a second in the last two races.  They have had their moments during the early stages of the season, but are still looking to their break through in ALMS competition.

The Dunlop tires are making some headway in the class, which was quite evident from the efforts of PTG Panoz and Corsa among others.  No word yet if Panoz is continuing on the British rubber, but indications are that we are much closer to the long discussed new bodywork and tub.

Unfortunately, Corsa has opted out of these two races.  I was assured that the team will be back in the future, stronger than ever.  Hopefully that means they will be back by Road America.

Drayson-Barwell has had a tough time lately, as the motor program has not yet lived up to expectations.  Work on the program was supposed to have taken place during the Le Mans break, which would be quite a godsend for the team which has struggled for consistent track time.

Primetime Race Group has been busy during the Le Mans break, as they now have their development chassis (wrecked at St Pete) ready to go.  Many developments have gone into this car, which should help close the gap to the front of the field.

After hoping to debut at Sebring, Black Swan Racing, i.e. Tim Pappas, is hoping to debut their new Doran built Ford GT-R at Lime Rock, which will be co-driven by Anthony Lazzaro.  The team brings in Falken tires to the fray.  Indications are that time may be tight for the team to debut at Lime Rock, but as it is the “home” race for Tim, all efforts will be made to make it into the race.  They join Robertson Racing in campaigning the Doran built cars.

VICI racing is giving the race at Lime Rock a miss, preferring to wait until Mid Ohio to come back.  Recent testing at Sebring has been beneficial to tire partner Kuhmo, in regards to further development and the team hopes to be running tires in Ohio that will bring them closer to the leading pace in GT2.

Lou Gigliotti had hoped to be running his Riley built Corvette here, but it was not to be.  The car is due to be back in the Riley shops for some up-dates, some of which are mandated by regulations (body latches and such) while others are an attempt to bring the car closer to the regulation weight.  If Riley does not buy the car back to run, Lou hopes to bring the car back at Mosport and Petit, because they are tracks that he really likes and would love to race at.  But, even with the tough financial outlook, Lou is keeping his head up and making plans to return in the future.  Stay tuned…

It’s good to be back on traditional courses again, as the series regains its momentum and returns to its true road racing roots.  It ought to be an eventful and interesting ten days or so.  The fuzzy Hungarian will be covering the goings on for DSC at these events as he has to abandon his tranquil beach front home, just as the weather turns nice here in the Northwest.  Janos, I’ll let you know how it is back here.

Gary Horrocks